


subtext

by dizzy



Series: we're all fucking fine 2020 advent fics [12]
Category: The Haunting of Bly Manor (TV)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-18
Updated: 2020-12-18
Packaged: 2021-03-10 16:48:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,354
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28140411
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dizzy/pseuds/dizzy
Summary: Dani finds a new bookstore.
Relationships: Dani Clayton/Jamie
Series: we're all fucking fine 2020 advent fics [12]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2035990
Comments: 8
Kudos: 87





	subtext

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: _okay i've only seen you mention bly manor a couple of times so feel free to disregard this prompt!! but i'd love to read anything dani/jamie that isn't like, horrifyingly sad lmao. literally anything you want._

Vermont gets so cold in the winter. 

The inside of the shop stays nice and toasty warm, thanks to Jamie and her nonstop handling of the plants. She doesn't just tend to them; she dotes on them. She makes them thrive, coaxes the most life out of them that that can possibly be found. She knows them right to their very roots. 

Jamie's good at stuff like that. 

But she's not as good at other things. She can't sit still. She doesn't like to read all that much. She's the sort of person who wants her hands in a project. She wants to touch the leaves and smell the soil. She thrives on tactile sensations, and it's not as though Dani doesn't enjoy that - frankly, Jamie's love of the tactile is a source of great joy to Dani in many ways inappropriate to put upon a page. 

It just means that Jamie doesn't find the peace in settling down with a good book that Dani does, not even in the winter when the snow fall outside just seems to beckon her to curl up in front of a roaring fire and lose herself in something outside of her own head and so far away from the tiny kernel of dread always lurking inside of her. 

-

"I'm out of books!" Dani says, huffing. She stomps around like the mimic of a tantrum will make one appear. 

Jamie picks one up. "Think I found one right here?" 

"I've already read that!" Dani slumps down onto the sofa and crosses her arms over her chest. A wisp of hair that's fallen out of her ponytail tickles her cheek. 

Jamie sits on the arm of the couch and reaches out, tucking that stray bit of hair behind Dani's ear. "Well, then. Guess you just have to go get yourself a new one?" 

Dani laughs softly. "Is that your way of telling me to get out?" 

"No," Jamie says, then leans over and kisses your forehead. "That's my way of telling you that I won't fuss if you bring home another book." 

"Hmm. I don't trust that." Dani tilts her head up. "What's the catch?" 

"Well..." Jamie draws the sound out long, then lifts the book she hasn't yet put down. "You did say you've read this one twice. So you can part with it, yeah?"

"No!" Dani gasps and reaches for it, but Jamie holds it back out of the way. "I like it! It's one of my favorites!" 

"Poppins." 

"It's... at least in my top ten." 

"..." 

"Fifty. Definitely in the top fifty." 

Jamie laughs and stands up, dropping the book on Dani's lap. "Alright, that one gets a stay, but you better find book fifty one on that list and get it out of here or else your bookshelf may actually burst." 

-

Jamie's going to spend the day tending to a bunch of lenten roses that she thinks look a bit poorly, so Dani doesn't actually feel bad about bundling up and setting out to find herself a new prize to read. 

She knows where the closest bookstore is, but she's heard about another one that just opened on the opposite side of town. She walks with her hands shoved into the pockets of her coat and her eyes tuned to the crunch of the snow underfoot. 

It really couldn't be more different than England, or at least the England she experienced. 

But she's not thinking of that. 

She's thinking of the little boy across the street holding his mom's hand and staring in shop windows. She's thinking of the burst of warmth that washes over her when someone opens a door just as she's walking past it. She's thinking of the friendly smiles she gives and receives and how the world can't possibly be that bad when places like this exist in it. 

-

She's shivering by the time she reaches where she thinks the new bookstore should be. It takes her a bit to find it - she's expecting something quaint. Mrs. Linzmeyer runs the other one and it's a pleasant comfortable little place with a couple of sofas and stacks of books and they don't even mind if you do sit and read a bit as long as you buy something before you leave. 

This doesn't look so quaint. The outside is painted a bright purple and the sign above it reads 'subtext' in a curving, happy looking font. 

She pushes open the door. It's painted pink and heavier than she thinks it'll be. Inside it smells like some sort of burning herbs. 

"Oh, hi there!" A pretty young girl with a ring through her nose and jet black pincurls is leaning against the desk. "Welcome to Subtext. Your first time visiting?" 

"It is, yeah. I-" Dani's breath catches in her chest. 

There's a painting on the wall of two women entwined. One has skin as dark as Hannah's and the other is as pale as a ghost. 

(Don't think of Hannah. Don't think of ghosts.) 

"Oh-" Dani's hand goes to her mouth. 

The shop worker follows her gaze. "It's a piece by an artist out of New York." 

"It's very. I- I like it," Dani says. 

She feels like she may be blushing. 

"Well," the girl says. "I'm Robin, and if you like that, I think you'll enjoy looking around the store." 

-

Dani does. 

She enjoys it very much. Once she realizes what sort of store this is - not that it's all it is, of course. There's a normal fiction section and biographies and lots of names of authors she recognizes. 

But it's every title she doesn't she has to pull out to read the back of. Some of them make her mouth go dry. She wants to buy them all, but she's mindful of having to carry them back herself so she only walks away with a few. 

"You know there's a movie for this one," Robin says, holding up a pale green book with The Children's Hour written on the cover. "Have you seen it?" 

"No," Dani says. "I didn't know there was one." 

"Yeah. Total classic, if you're a masochist. Wild that they let Audrey Hepburn and Shirley MacLaine even do that, though." 

"Oh." Dani frowns. "It's a sad story?" 

"A serious bummer. You'll cry your fucking eyes out." 

"Maybe I'll put that one back then," Dani says. "I think I've had enough sad stories for a while." 

Robin slides it to the other side of the counter. "I'll re-shelve it later. Need something to do. We don't get a lot of people in here, unfortunately. I think word spread about us in the bad way." 

"Well," Dani says. "I'll be coming back. And I'll bring my wife with me." 

"Wife?" Robin asks. 

Dani flashes her ring. "I mean, if they don't think we deserve to get married, we think they don't deserve to get to tell us what marriage is." 

Robin laughs. "Oh you tell 'em. Hell yeah!" 

Dani grins. It feels like a good conversation. She feels good having it. 

"Here," Robin says, reaching out and plucking a woven bracelet from a little basket of them on the counter. It looks handmade, with all the colors of the rainbow intertwining prettily. "First time customer gift." 

"Oh, are you sure?" Dan asks, but she's already sliding it on. She takes a moment to admire it there. "Thank you so much." 

"You're welcome!" 

Dani looks around the shop again. There's a sign above the door that reads 'we welcome all kinds.' "You really do, don't you? Welcome all kinds?" 

"Except the people who don't welcome us," Robin says. 

"Thank you." Dani looks right at her. "For the bracelet. For everything." 

"Just doing my job," Robin says. "And I hope you do bring your wife next time."

"I will. I promise." 

-

The temperature has dropped even more as Dani walks back home, but she doesn't mind. 

All she can think about is getting back home in front of a fire and making Jamie be her pillow as she jumps into a new kind of world inside the pages of a brand new book.

**Author's Note:**

> thank you to sarah who is an amazing beta reader and puts up with my 'what if... THERE'S A QUEER BOOKSTORE in this one!!' approximately every 20th fic i write


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